The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - episode 68

Legends Mix

This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.

And yet another hour of the best of Rhythm & Blues is about to come. Jumping jives, rocking rhythms, boogie woogie and the blues and to start with, a vocal group. They were formed in prison, inmates of Nashville's Tennessee State Penitentiary. Recorded for the Sun label, here are the Prisonaires with No more tears.

01 - Prisonaires - No More Tears
02 - Ruth Brown & Her Rhythmakers - As Long As I'm Moving

From 1955 Atlantic sweetheart Ruth Brown with As Long As I'm Moving and that was the flip of I Can See Everybody's Baby.

Next Joe Turner with Feeling Happy. It was included in a 1956 movie Shake Rattle & Rock where he fronts Choker Campbell and his band and plays for an all-white audience with people being worried about a police raid. It was also released in 1957 as a single on Atlantic, but he'd recorded the song before for the Freedom label in '49.

So the song was revived in the middle of the rock 'n roll era but the '56 version sounds like it could well have been recorded in the late forties. And that includes the typical forties blues catch phrases like the jump children and the references to, in this case, a tall skinny mama of 90 pounds - she must have lost weight 'cause in the '49 version she was a big fat mama and weighed three hundred pounds.

Now his hit Shake Rattle and Roll and the popular version of Bill Haley had helped Joe Turner to move forward in the Rock 'n Roll era, while most Rhythm & Blues had to find out that their days in the spotlight were gone. The white teenagers' idols were other white teenagers, not middle-aged black musicians. With a song like this, Turner stuck to his old style and apparently he got away with it. He's a great blues shouter, but I guess you have to be a bit lucky too.

03 - Big Joe Turner - Feeling Happy
04 - Roy Brown - Shake 'em up Baby

And another great blues shouter - Roy Brown with Shake 'em up Baby from 1955 on King. Unlike Joe Turner, for Roy Brown this was at the end of his career, he didn't get the appreciation of the new rock 'n roll public like Turner did.

And staying with the great blues shouters, here is Wynonie Harris, but now from the time that they were still much in fashion. Listen to Rugged Road, a blues from 1946 recorded for Aladdin.

05 - Wynonie Harris - Rugged Road
06 - Todd Rhodes & His Toddlers - Anitra's Jump

Todd Rhodes and his Toddlers with a sublime play on Edvard Grieg's Anitra's Dance from the Peer Gynt suite. You heard Anitra's jump and this goodie was released in 1947 on the Sensation label.

From 1948 Joe Lutcher and this is nearly completely instrumental apart from one verse. He hit number 14 with this on the R&B chart. On the Specialty label, here is Joe Lutcher with his Rockin Boogie.

07 - Joe Lutcher - Rockin Boogie
08 - Martha Davis - The Same Old Boogie

Martha Davis with The Same Old Boogie from 1946 that was released on the pretty obscure West coast based Urban record label. This was just before she'd rise to stardom with the musical comedy act she did with her husband Calvin Ponder that she toured the country with, and even some moments on the silver screen, in the 1948 movie Smart Politics.

Next a song of Louis Jordan - with whom Davis has worked briefly in the late forties. This is somewhat earlier, recorded in April of 1945 and was released as the flip of his immortal Caldonia. Here is Somebody Done Changed the Lock on My Door.

09 - Louis Jordan - Somebody Done Changed the Lock on My Door
10 - Helen Humes - Jet Propelled Papa

The Jet Propelled Papa and that was Helen Humes, one of my favourite R&B singers and I love her laid back style. In a biography on answers.com an attempt is made to characterize her singing style and one thing is absolutely true as they say she sings in a seemingly unhurried manner.

In the thirties, Helen Humes had replaced Billie Holiday in Count Basie's band and the anonymous author of the biography uses that as a reason to compare the two singers, drawing the implicit conclusion that Humes had a few qualities that Holiday didn't have, especially in her timing and dynamics. Now Billie Holiday got more credits to the greater audience, but I think Helen Humes never got the broad recognition that she deserved, and that she should be listed alongside the other great women of the blues.

11 - Big Bill Broonzy - Summertime Blues
12 - Champion Jack Dupree - Big Leg Emma's

You got Big Bill Broonzy - or just Big Bill as the label credited - recorded on Columbia in December 1947 with his Summertime Blues and after that Champion Jack Dupree with Big Leg Emma's on Joe Davis' Celebrity label from 1946 and just scrolling through a discography of Dupree on a German site, I was stunned for how many record labels he did record.

Next Preacher Lee Graves - he was a trumpeter in Johnny Otis' band from the mid-forties and in 1951 he did a few songs as the vocalist for Henry Hayes combo. Listen to Papa Said Yes, Mama Said No, No, No on Mercury.

13 - Lee Graves - Papa Said Yes, Mama Said No, No, No
14 - Ray Johnson - House of Blues

(jingle)

15 - Vivian Greene - He's the Man
16 - Violet Hall - Six Foot Papa

Two pretty obscure blues women - you heard Vivian Greene with He's the man and before that you got Violet Hall with the Six Foot Papa that was recorded for Mercury.

Then I have to account for what was before the jingle - that was Ray Johnson and that was released in 1953 on the Mercury label. According to Rock 'n roll specialist Tapio Vaisanen it was his first single - I found a discography in the archives of the Rockingrecords mailing list, that I'm a member of myself.

Next blues pianist Willie Love with a recording he did for the Trumpet label in 1951. He had a long life friendship with Sonny Boy Williamson II who brought him to the Trumpet studios. Williamson, though, is not present on the record that I'm gonna play - that is the 74 Blues.

17 - Willie Love & His Three Aces - 74 Blues
18 - Treniers - Poontang

And no, that is not the way I treat my saxophone. You heard this outrageous squeaks on the Treniers' song Poontang from 1952 on the Okeh label. And you may have heard it from the background music - yes time's up for today.

I hope you liked today's selection and of course you can always let me know and send me an e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Also there's my website where you can read back what I told you and review today's playlist or see what's in next week's show or even more ahead in the future. Do a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - that's by far the easiest way to find my web site, instead of typing some hideously difficult web address. So I hope to see you there - or next time here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!